Belfast School of Performing Arts

The Mission: During the Covid lockdowns, Belfast School of Performing Arts wanted to bring a hundred of their students together to sing in aid of Marie Curie — at precisely the moment when a hundred young performers could not be in the same room.

The Execution: This is a technical problem wearing a creative one's clothes. A hundred separately recorded performances, filmed at home on whatever the family had to hand, have to end up in time, in tune, and looking like they belong in the same film.

The work is all in the assembly: syncing a hundred takes, levelling a hundred different microphones, grading a hundred living rooms towards something coherent, and building a structure that grows from one voice to a full choir without losing anybody in the crowd.

The Result: A charity film that got a hundred students performing together at a time when they couldn't be, raising money for Marie Curie — and one of the more genuinely worthwhile things I've been asked to make.